Show SEEN and HEAR EARD around tse the amk IM NATIONAL IONAL CAPITAL CA 01 by carter field FAMOUS washington correspondent washington washing ton while congress Is off the administrations hands the courts are still on the job and the bombardment of new deal policies along the constitutional front may be expected to continue in this s connection AAA officials are confident that with ith the new amendments just passed by congress the processing taxes will be upheld they think the objections which lower courts have hare found to the old processing taxes and which lawyers generally believe will be found by the supreme court have been avoided hence the lie AAA intends to do everything thin possible to produce a court test of the new processing taxes just as speedily as possible AAA officials say privately that they have already picked the case on which to make the battle it Is that of the hoosac mills washington lawyers who no matter what their specialty always figure that they are experts on what list the supreme court may do and who certainly are more interested in the court than in what might be called the chores of the profession are divided as to what will be the outcome three possibilities they admit ara open the first Is for the high court to throw the whole business out the window holdin holding that the assess assessment men ot of such excise taxes Is beyond the power of congress in that these taxes are for a particular purpose and not tor for the general need of the government and that they are not intended to produce revenue but to achieve a desired price level in this case the AAA would have nowhere to turn but there Is little doubt whit what the administration would do it would continue to pay farm benefits and in january it would ask congress to levy special taxes to provide v ide the additional revenue needed or the court might as AAA officials believe atwill it will uphold the whole business which would settle the question for the time being probably until after the next election anyhow another possibility but th there ere is another possibility the high court may decide that the processing taxes as fixed in the law are all right but that the formula for changing them as agricultural prices approach parity Is an unconstitutional delegation of power most lawyers agree that the injection of tills this formula tor for changing the taxes as the prices of products change was a giave giace mistake by those desiring to avoid having the court throw the taxes out for they contend that beyond aay any doubt the inclusion of this formula proves that the taxes are not in fact excise taxes levied tor for revenue that it proves the only object of the taxes is to b brine r ing better prices for the farmer now everybody knows that this was the real object there Is no question about that the only question is whether li ether congress has the right to levy internal taxes tor for such a purpose no one questions that the tariff duties are levied with this end in mind it has been a protective tariff and not purely a revenue tariff for a many years in fact tile the ficano elcans used to win nin elections right along on that plea and even when the democrats came into power on the tariff issue back in Clev elands time there I 1 was no actual scuttling 0 the protective idea it was just modified more than that in recent years there has been a formula for changing these import taxes so as to equalize the difference in cost of production here and abroad the chief difference the lawyers say Is that there has never been any question of the power of congress under the constitution to levy tariffs for purposes of protection as well as revenue but there Is grave doubt as to whether congress has the right to levy excise taxes for any other than revenue purposes ways of candidates once a man starts thinking he may become b president of the united states something very curious happens to his bis mental process it Is proverbial that this applies to his own estimates of ills his chances for success especially after he be Is nominated men who traveled on the train with james 11 cox cos in 1920 know that cox thought bought he had an excellent chance right up to tile the last though the harding landslide yas was overwhelm lug ine but lie he was not alone in this many others on that cox train thought so too including some pretty newspaper men perhaps the answer to this sort of thing Is that people meeting a celebrity of any sort and certainly a man who just may become president do not rack their brains to say disagreeable things they like to say things that the man will remember pleasantly but this Is not all the picture of what happens to a potential candidate a man who thinks the lightning may strike him consider the way two men who desire the republican domination are going about it to wit senator berg of michigan and colonel knox of th the chicago dally daily news knos enox who figured second only to to norah borab in the recent poll taken laken by robert n U lucas among republican local leaders all over the country Is barn storming as few candidates have ever done ne ile Is going up and down the country making speeches every time he gets a chance giving out more or less sensational interviews in between and generally attracting all the attention lie he can get while has been most cautious in the senate and Is not only declining to go places and make speeches but Is 19 refusing even to give interviews lie ile has recently refused to repeat his often expressed views on a certain subject for or a well known magazine an opportunity which few senators would decline and which would not decline if lie he were not rigidly holding himself to a cautious line of procedure then take borah on the other hand senator borah who probably has been talked about for president longer than any living man and gotten less close to the no nomination nt at convention time than anybody who ever aspired it if the roll calls of the conventions are arc accepted as decisive on this ads acts just as though he be were not interested right after ills his present boom started lie he proceeded to cast votes and mate malse speeches which were calculated to alienate the conservative serva tIve wing of the party and this came at a 1 moment when he was waa being considered as tin nn excellent connecting link to weld together the two wings of the party perhaps the explanation Is that borah has been talked about for president so long that he be no longer takes it seriously save in a complimentary way nobody knows the answer to that people do know that he Is tremendously interested in the talk that story Is true about ills his putting the slip of paper with borah for president which a colleague put on his desk as a joke into a drawer and then taking it out and looking at it halt half a dozen times within an hour and it to figure out whose handwriting it was either ills face according to those bo watched him showed distinct satisfaction is cut but it was not long afterward that he be In surged all over the lot casting ballots and making remarks calculated to cause cold chills down new york and new england a and nd new jersey spines maybe he be thinks they have got to be for him and lie wants nants the wild boys too so ills his election will be unanimous said a cynical commentator he recalled the story of 0 hoovers overs asking a prominent north carolina republican after the 1928 election it if he would not have carried the tar heel state even without the religious issue gets what he wanted very few times in history has a president obtained a greater measure of what he wanted from his second congress than has president roosevelt lie he actually suffered no important reverses except a few having fundamentally nothing to do with his program gram and policies critics point to the world court vote every president since wilson has been for tile the world court and every one harding coolidge and hoover failed to get anywhere with it due to a combination of racial groups opposing united states adherence to tl the e court and to widespread and firmly frozen isolationist sentiment many senators simply do not dare to vote tor for it critics also point to the st lawrence seaway treaty which mr roosevelt strongly favors and which does impinge slightly on his program and policies in that there Is a power angle cut but the power angle an gle had bad nothing to do with the defeat of that treaty nor the attitude in the senate that made it futile to attempt to bring it up again it Is purely the hie seaway angle that operates against ratification opposition comes solidly from the atlantic coast and gulf states whose ports would be hurt by the diversion of deep sea traffic to that route there Is nothing partisan about it some critics also point to the votes on the death sen sentence terice of the utility holding company bill this Is not to be discounted for the president stoked staked his bis whole fight on the death sentence clause and so did the utilities to in their tremendous letter and telegram writing campaign where fig fight ht centered the most interesting point here however Is that tile the utilities did not dare attempt to draw their battle line more to their own advantage if they had dared make a flat fight to eliminate any possibility of the holding companies being forced out of existence for example ample er that might have meant something the whole fight between senate and house and between the president and the house was over whether a flat day for execution should be named or cheth whether discretion to commute the sentence might be vested in a commission a commission named by the president the remainder of the measure Is dr drastic astle but the utilities abou though gh denouncing noun cing it did not make a real fight plent plenty of lists of the legislation passed at the roosevelt command are being printed there Is no point to repeating repealing them here the point Is nowhere did he fall to get pretty nearly what he wanted service lct |